“Hang on just a cotton-pickin’ minute here,” Maddy interrupted. Bran looked over to find her hands fisted on her hips. Her verycurvyhips. Some people might say they weretoocurvy for her small frame.Yo, and some people are morons.“Y’all are really salvors?” Her light-brown brows were drawn together. “I thought she said you worked for the government.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder at Olivia.
“It’s…uh…” Bran rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. He thought he’d left the days of keeping secrets behind him. And quite honestly he’dpreferredit that way. “It’s complicated,” he finally admitted, watching her cute button-nose wrinkle. The freckles across the bridge melded together, like brown sugar atop a scoop of vanilla ice cream. “We’re salvors working for the government on this gig, and—”
That’s all he managed because a subtle splashing had all eyes swinging toward the location buoy. Bobbing beside the white marker was a shiny metal box kept afloat by two neon-yellow lift bags.
Maddy turned back to him, her expression wry. “What’s in the box?What’s in the boooxxx?”
Chapter Sixteen
5:15 p.m.…
Banu punched the End button on the side of his satellite phone and narrowed his eyes. Through the tinted windows of the wheelhouse, the sea was a pristine, endless undulation of low waves as far as the eye could see. But that had not been the case five minutes ago…
“Nassar is not answering?” Ahmed asked, frowning.
“No,” Banu growled, his jaw sawing back and forth, his mind conjuring up all the unique and exciting ways he could slowly kill Nassar if the asshole had fucked things up for them. Forhim.
“It’s possible the debris we just passed had nothing to do with us or Nassar or that salvage ship he spoke of,” Ahmed assured him. “Styrofoam breaks off docks and floats out to sea all the time. Cushions that are not tied down fly off boats every day. There was nothing out of the ordinary, if you think about it.”
“You’re right.” Banu nodded. Inwardly he couldn’t help but wonder, though. Because the currents in the Straits were viciously strong. And if Nassar had sunk the salvage ship, it was possible some of the wreckage could have floated out this far. He checked his watch.Threeandahalfhourssincethelasttimewespoke, said the hour and minute hands.Andtheman’s a fucking lunatic, added a voice in his head. “So why isn’t he answering?”
Ahmed made a rude noise. “Nassar probably forgot to put a new battery in the phone. And since their ship sank, there is no way for him to charge the one he has or get a new one. I am sure it is nothing, brother. Wait and see. You will triumph still. And your name will be immortalized in songs of jihad for centuries to come.”
Nowthatturned Banu’s frown upside-down. Immortalized in song, huh? Like Davy Crockett or Rasputin.LikefuckingBeethovenorHenryVIII!Okay, okay. Maybe hewasoverreacting. Seeing problems where there weren’t any. But could you blame him? This was his chance. This was The One! And ithadto work. He’d come too far to go back now. Too many arrows were now pointing in his direction for him ever to return to Jonathan Wilson’s life…
* * *
5:42 p.m.…
Hallelujah! And thank you, sweet baby Jesus!
From the corner of her eyes, Olivia saw Wolf toss his fins and goggles onto the swim deck before climbing the ladder. It was from thecornerof her eyes, because her gaze was laser-locked on Leo, bobbing in the water at the back of the yacht, waiting his turn to climb aboard.
The hour between the capsules rising to the surface andhisemergence had felt like an eternity.Twoeternities. Mason and Bran had assured her it wasgoodit was taking him so long to make the ascent. It meant things were solid gold, hunky-dory. He was hitting all of his safety stops, and so on and so forth, yada yada.
In her gut, she’d known they were right. And her head couldn’t refute their logic, not after everything she’d read about deep dives on her flight from DC.Wasthatjustthismorning?But her heart? Yeah, her heart was another matter entirely. She would swear the thing had refused to beat the whole time he was down there, only stuttering to life when his blond head poked above the waves.
“Are you experiencing any joint pain or dizziness? Any shortness of breath?” she called to him, frantic to hear his voice. She’d never forgive herself if—
“Nope,” he told her, whipping off his goggles and shaking the seawater from his shaggy hair. The burnished-gold locks glinted in the light sparkling off the water and she squinted, not able to look directly at him. He was like the sun himself, all bright and beautiful.Sodamnbeautiful.He grabbed the ladder and tossed his fins and goggles onto the deck. “And my dive computer says there were no decompression violations. I should be good to go.”
“It’s too soon to tell,” she insisted. Mason and Bran grabbed his arms and hauled him aboard. Water sheeted off him and his equipment, creating an immense puddle at his feet that gathered in the grooves of the deck before racing back to rejoin the sea. “But nearly half of the cases of DCS present symptoms within the first hour, so if you don’t show any signs of—”
He leaned over and smacked a kiss on her lips, effectively shutting her up. “Relax, darlin’. I’m fine.”
Darlin’.The endearment went all through her, and it sounded delicious in his Deep South accent—dawlin. No one had ever given her a pet name before. Well, there was that French asset she’d slept with a time or two who’d called her “mabelle.” But he’d only done it when he was in the middle of an orgasm, so she figured that didn’t really count.
“Did you get the package?” he asked, shrugging out of his tanks and handing them to Bruce, who was waiting nearby. The crew of theBlackGoldhad been extremely helpful, thanks in no small part, Olivia presumed, to the former positions she’d learned they held in Britain’s Royal Navy. They had probably taken part in their fair share of operations just like this one where the name of the game was Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As for Maddy? Well…as far as Olivia could ascertain, the woman was just flat-out imperturbable.
“Yes,” she assured him. “Mason swam out to retrieve it as soon as it surfaced. Captain Tripplehorn agreed to lock it in theBlackGold’s safe until the A-Team arrives.”
Having shed his gear belt and dive computer, Leo reached behind his back and hooked a finger in the loop of the cord attached to the wet suit’s zipper. Pulling it down to his waist, he peeled the neoprene off his arms and chest. Miles upon miles of tough, tan skin glowed with health. And when he lifted one arm to glance at his diver’s watch, the muscles in his arms and shoulders bulged.
“Speakin’ of,” he said. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”
She shook her head. “I called…uh…myboss.” She was careful not to name names since it was common knowledge that Morales was the director of the CIA. And until he told her otherwise, she was keeping as much information as she could about who they were and who they worked for from Maddy and her crew. “I told him the package was safe. He said to thank you, and—”
“I didn’t do it forhim,” Leo rumbled, giving her a “look.” One that was full of heat and promises of dirty deeds done between cool, cotton sheets.Oh God.
